The Pom Pom Brigade
by magicmumu
Summary: Set in an alternate reality, Sam and Carly meet up again after fear tore their friendship apart. Being older and a little bit wiser, can they really try again? WARNING Femslash Carly/Sam, Cursing


The PomPom Brigade

by Erin Griffin

Fandom: iCarly (AU, future fic)

Pairing: Carly/Sam, Carly/Freddie, possibly others

Rating: I would say R for strong language (Bad Sam!)

Disclaimer: This show belongs to Nickalodeon. No profit is being made by this fic.

Note: This is for the Nickslash fic exchange. This story is to Franciee. Hopefully I got what you wanted in it.

I breathed a couple of puffs from my lungs into my hands in a desperate attempt to warm them up. The cold, November air in Seattle chilled me, yet still I stood guard, almost like one of those British guards, only without the weird hats. I waited for her. Her with the long brunette hair, sparkling eyes and teeth. She's late. I take one step towards my bike, then shake my head, vowing to give her a few more minutes. Seattle traffic could be a bitch to get through, and any number of things could have gone wrong to cause delay. I check the clock on my cellphone to find that the seconds ticked by slower and slower as my heart beat faster and faster at the realization that she might not come to me tonight, and her promise to me... Her promise to me...

***

It was all Melanie's fault. She needed a damn ride into the U-Dub to go to the basketball game and then some party for the pom pom squad, since the Huskies had won their third game in a row and seemed to be headed towards the... well, whatever the equivalant game to a Super Bowl for college basketball was- this year. She lived off campus, since even her 3.8 GPA and cheerleading highschool lifestyle wasn't enough to get her a scholarship to cover the cost of campus living. 'Besides, why live in a cramped little room with four people when you had a room shared with your twin sister?' my parents asked. They never quite caught on to the fact that for us who share the same face, we had nothing else in common. We barely had that twin empathy people were always raving about. It was never any secret that we were like yin and yang, me the dark to her light. It was no secret that my parents were proud of the things Melanie had done, from getting into a private school and then into college, while I dropped out of high school and became a lesbian. But that was something that I had gotten over long ago. I am now the legal drinking age, and I have been having a blast ever since. Though I refuse to fall into the same habits as my mother, I cannot deny that nothing washes down a three pound burger from Dingo's like a bottle of beer.

I knocked on our bedroom door after looking at the clock on the wall, and Melanie screamed, "I'm almost ready, sheesh!"

"Well, hurry up then. You know how crappy traffic gets, and I still have to pick up my paycheck, so move it!" I started counting from twenty down to one. My twin sister knew from past experiance that I would leave after I got to one no matter how close she was to being ready. After all, I was doing this without a request for gas money and she was being a pain in my ass.

The door to our bedroom opened quickly, and Melanie called, "Okay okay, I'm here!" She rolled her eyes at me, which I had learned long ago to ignore. Since she wasn't paying for gas and I was only giving her a ride in because no one else could and the basketball game was on my way, she had to play by my rules. She knew that when I was ready to go, I was going to go. I handed her one of the helmets, and she stared at me as if I was crazy. I knew what her argument would be. Something about how she had just gotten her hair into a neat and shiney ponytail and didn't want to mess it up or else the boys will see how messed up it is and get distracted from the game... or whatever nonsense she wants to pull to get out of wearing it. She's so vain. I only shook it a little at her, and she snatched it from me. I smirked, loving the fact that she was hating this. I watched her purple and yellow face paint of 'Go Dawgs!' and of 'UW' on either cheek to show her support for the Washington Huskies get covered. I knew that after this game, win or lose, there would be a party at some guy's house. I knew that my parents didn't know about it, and I wasn't one to rat on people, considering how much leverage Melanie already had on me. I had a few hours to myself before I had to come and get the princess from her ball.

I put my black leather jacket on over the heavier shirt that I was wearing. It had been getting colder lately, and I needed to bulk up, especially if I was going to be riding the streets of Seattle on my motorcycle. I watched as Melanie carefully put on the old fashioned helmet that had been all I could afford after purchasing my bike, later upgrading to the nicer one I had now. I put on the newer helmet that I had gotten just a couple of months ago. It was almost routine now, where I would climb onto the bike first, and then wait for Melanie to cautiously get her ass up there, too. When she was pretty situated, she would gingerly wrap her arms around my waist. She didn't need to tell me that she was ready; that was where our slight twin empathy came in. As I began moving the bike and kicked the kickstand up, I felt her arm muscles tense around me. It was only due to the small amount of respect I had for her that I didn't go my normal speed limit.

We made it to the arena in due time, and I hoped that maybe I would see a huge sign somewhere that said 'Huge party this way after the game', but there wasn't anything like that. As soon as Melanie got off of the bike, I asked, "Where am I picking you up?"

"I'll come back here," Melanie replied somewhat flippantly as if she was in a hurry to get rid of me.

"Alright. You know the drill. Any time you want to leave or if someone says or does something you don't like, call me right away and I'll be back to kick their ass," I told her. Melanie smirked at this, knowing my position on guys who perved on her. It was like I could always feel it when someone was hitting on Melanie- and it happened a lot more than I liked. To me, if someone perved on her, it was like they were perving on me, and that just pissed me off. It was a twin thing. "Otherwise," I continued, "what time should I be here to get you?"

Melanie looked at her watch as if it would tell her what time the party would be over or when she would be tired enough to want to leave, like some clock in Harry Potter. "10:30-ish?" She handed me the helment and I put it in the basket in the back.

"No 'ish'. If you're not here at 10:30-"

"Got it. Go now," Melanie said, waving me off. I only stared at her. I turned to hop back on the bike when I felt her hand on my shoulder. "Thanks for the ride, Sam. Ten thirty. I'll be right here," she said as if to make amends, if only for that split moment. I arched one of my eyebrows and looked around casually. Knowing what I was doing, she added, "No one is around to hear me say that." I couldn't help the laughter that escaped me at this. It figured. Suddenly she called, "Okay, whatever! Don't get too drunk and forget to pick me up!"

When I looked around again, I saw a head of long brunette hair, and I quickly left, shoving my helmet on my head and hopping on my bike. I flipped up the eye shield and said, "You better be here." Again, Melanie only waved me off. I cursed at her, which only made her laugh, and I was gone. The errand I had to run didn't seem as important to me as I thought about the brunette who had come to my sister's side, the girl who caused me to run. Carlita Shay- Carly as she was known to family and friends- was more beautiful than I had ever remembered seeing her. Like Melanie, her hair had been pulled into a ponytail, and her face had the usual slogans and symbols of excessive school spirit. I tried to forget how close we once were, and how much I loved her.

In elementary school, Carly's family moved to Seattle, and my life had changed forever. At the age of eight, we formed a bond so quickly that it at times concerned adults around us, since even then I was seen as a bad influence. Many times our teacher then would try to convince her to play with Melanie instead, but Carly always could tell us apart even before either one of us spoke. She continued to be my friend, and the next year, Melanie had gotten the opperatunity to go to a private school on scholarship. I had known right away that I was in love with Carly. I told her everything, and she held all of my secrets. I knew even at age eight and nine that what I felt for her was different from anyone else. For the next six years, it was us against the world. Even, sometimes, us against Melanie when she would come home from school with a hoity toity attitude, having forgotten where she came from.

I don't remember when or how it happened. One moment we were the best of friends, and then we started to really mean it when we said 'I love you' to eachother. We would hold hands and arms longer than neccisary, and every now and again, we shared a kiss. In junior high, I remember getting her a mood ring at some jewelry store at the mall for Carly's birthday, and she told me that she would never take it off... That she would wear it forever.

But then, when we were fourteen years old, we met Freddie Benson. Freddie always had this not so secret crush on Carly, and I hated him for it. I would always tell him it was because of his geekiness that I had to pick on him, but I knew in my heart it wasn't true. See, I knew that Carly understood what it meant for her and I to kiss eachother, and I don't think she liked what it implied about herself. Even though she spent the rest of middle school and the first couple of years of high school rebuffing Freddie's advances towards her, in our junior year of high school, something must have broke. She started dating him, and that was when our friendship crumbed completely. After highschool, when Carly, Freddie, and Melanie went to the U-Dub, I was left behind. When it turned out that Carly and Melanie shared a couple of the same classes, they became friends, and I was forgotten completely. Not that I hadn't seen that coming. Ever since Freddie and Carly started dating, I no longer wanted to be apart of that trio. Now, Mel and Carly do their girly cheerleading things together, and had been for the last three years. Both are now in their senior year of college, while I've been working at that music store by the Pike Place Market.

I got home a little bit later and caught a couple of episodes of the Sopranos before ten o'clock hit and I made my way back towards the arena. I waited for a few minutes, seeing that I was early, but when ten thirty arrived, Melanie still wasn't there. I cursed under my breath. I should have known she wouldn't have been back on time. Taking out my cellphone, I called Melanie, getting her answering machine right away, the sure sign that she turned her phone off. I was so irritated with my twin by then that I was ready to just leave her to grab a bus home, but I knew that would just get me in trouble in the end. Knowing her, she would party too hard, forget the bus scheduals, miss the last bus, call home, and since I was the one responsible for giving her a ride, it would, in the eyes of my mother, be my fault that this happened. So I am going to make sure it doesn't happen. I decided I would drag her ass home even if it makes her unpopular in the end, or something. God, it still feels like highschool.

I looked around for a clue that would tell me where this party was being held, but all I saw were a couple of the cheerleaders who looked similar to my twin. I walked up to them and asked, "Excuse me, do you know where some party was supposed to be? My sister is a cheerleader and I am supposed to pick her up."

One of the cheerleaders, an African American girl with a bright smile and mile-long legs answered me first, though her look seemed to tell me she didn't need to ask who my sister was. "You need directions to Byron's house?"

"Uh... yes, if that's where the party is supposed to be," I replied. The dark girl smiled at me and pointed down the road.

"Go down this street for about three blocks, take a left at the 7-11, and at the forth light-"

"There is a grocery store there," the other cheerleader cut in. She had pale skin and light blue eyes, her hair a dirtier blond than Melanie and mine. The African American cheerleader smiled and nodded to this.

"Yeah, at the grocery store, take another left. About two blocks in, you should start seeing the cars everywhere."

"Do you know if Melanie is there?"

"Last I knew. She and Carly were so excited to go, so I think so."

"Okay," I said. The light skinned cheerleader gave me the address to look for, and I thanked them for their help. With that and a reluctant, new attitude about cheerleaders, I got back on the bike, ready to get Melanie, and ready to chew her a new one for not being where she promised to be. I was already imagining her face when I told her that she wasn't getting any rides from me for a while. That made me feel less irritated, but not much less. I put the helmet back on, and followed the cheerleaders' directions, which lead me directly there. Byron, his name was, lived in the better part of town, and seemed to share a house with a lot of other people, who all were throwing the party together from the looks of it. When I got inside, the person at the door asked me if I was a friend of Byron's and I lied and said yes to get in. He didn't seem to care one way or the other, as I looked exactly like Melanie and he probably was too drunk to notice or care that I wasn't her. I found another group of cheerleaders and was forced to scream out, "Where's Mel?" They all pointed upwards, and I was about to get raging mad before I saw her standing on the stairwell, her hip rested on someone still in the purple and gold basketball uniform. I called her name a couple of times, causing some of the party goers to looked at me strangely. I didn't care.

Melanie looked down at me, her eyes wide. She looked at her watch and then she gave me an apologetic look, which unfortunately took all of the wind from my sales. She had honestly forgotten the time. She hadn't just blown me off. She gave me a signal to wait for her. Either she needed to get her coat or she had to pee. I didn't know which one. I put two fingers in front of my lips to signal a smoke break and then to the outside patio, and she nodded. Through this exchange, I knew people were looking between the two of us, amused that we looked alike in the face but nowhere else. Instead of ignoring it this time, I found myself a little amused by it as well before I walked further into the house until I reached the said patio. As I opened the door, I took my cigarettes out of my jacket pocket, having a slight freakout when I didn't feel my lighter there with it. When I checked my right jeans pocket, I relaxed a little bit, and after closing the door behind me and finding my own spot off to the side of the house, I lit up.

With the cigarette between my lips, I shucked my jacket further on my shoulders, zipping up against the cold night air. The wind blew a little more, and I turned my back to it. I looked around at the house, and the nice neighborhood around it, seeing just how different this neighborhood was from the one Mel and I grew up in.

"Excuse me," a voice broke into my thoughts, "could you not smoke near me? I'm asthmatic."

This slightly startled me, as I hadn't seen the person when I moved away from the party. I could see why, she was slightly hidden in one of the corners of the side bricks. I couldn't see who it was in the darkness, but I knew she was one of the cheerleaders from the skirt. Part of me wondered just how many of them there were, and part of me didn't want to know. I turned away. "Sorry," I muttered. I walked a few steps past her so that I was downwind from her. "Better?"

"Sam?" I was startled again by the use of my name and I looked up at the girl who spoke it.

"Carly."

"I didn't know you smoked, Sam," Carly said, staring at the cigarette between my fingers. I did, too.

"Peer pressure. I know you know how that is," I replied with a shrug. "So why aren't you with the pompom brigade?" I asked.

"I just needed some air. Freddie's here, and I don't want to face him right now."

"Pity," I said.

"We haven't been dating for quite some time, Sam, if that makes you feel any better."

"You know," I said, "it really doesn't." I took a drag and let it out irritably, watching the smoke as it floated away in the wind. The silence between us lingered for quite some time. I could sense Carly's fidgety nature, and I stood with my back to her as well. I didn't want to be the cause of an asthma attack, even though she hadn't had one, to my knowledge, in many years. I remembered when Carly had her asthma attacks, how scared I was the first few times I witnessed it. I remembered the time she had forgotten her inhaler, and I had to run to the nearest payphone to call Spencer. That had been around the time we first met Freddie. He hadn't known what to do, so he stayed with her. After that, she started taking a preventative inhaler that worked so well, she was able to try out for cheerleading.

I was about two thirds into my cigarette when I heard her ask, "It's gonna be weird, isn't it?"

I snorted at her, my head looking over my shoulder. "Going to be?"

"Okay, it IS weird, isn't it?" She corrected herself. I shrugged again and looked back in front of me. There was another silence as I finished off the rest of my cigarette and stamped it out. I took my cellphone out of my pocket and checked the time. I wondered why it took Melanie so long to get her jacket or go pee or whatever it was she said she had to do before she left with me. I had taken a few steps past Carly, surprised when she grabbed my hand. I froze and slowly looked at her. Her grip on me was stornger than I ever would have expected it to be. "Sam, please talk to me," she pleaded.

"We have nothing to talk about, and you know it," I told her. "We grew apart, and that's it."

"We may have grown apart- grown up, perhaps, but that doesn't mean I don't still love you."

"Right," I said bitterly. "Say that again when you write me off to your parents or to Spencer as some college experiment." I wriggled my hand out of hers. "I've got to get Mel," I muttered.

"I won't be that way," she called after me. She ran to catch up with me. "I'm sorry for how I was in high school, Sam. It... Its complicated."

"It always is," I retorted, shaking my head and walking away.

"SAM!" Carly called after me.

I turned back to her. "What, Carly? What?" I felt myself getting irritated the more I was stuck in this conversation with her. This could be seen on my face and she seemed to hesitate before she suddenly stalked up to me, pulled me into her, and kissed me. Her hand was around the back of my neck to keep me from backing away from her, not that I wanted to at the moment. Again, I found myself amazed by how strong she was, and I wondered if she used lead pompoms in her routines and practices.

When at last we pulled away, she said, "I didn't want to be with Freddie, I never did. It was always you I was in love with, Sam." I could only stand there as I thought about what she had said. I wasn't sure if I should believe it, having told myself for so long that if given the choice she would never choose a life with a woman, with me. To hear her telling me that she always was in love with me made my five year anger with her hard to keep up. "You still don't believe me, do you?" she asked. She suddenly bent down and rolled down her right sock. There, I saw a hemp anklet, which was wrapped around a familiar ring. "I promised you that I would never take it off, and with the exception of making this when it got too small for me, I never have. I kept that promise Sam, even if I couldn't keep the promise of us being together forever." Carly looked me in the eye as she said, "I want to be with you."

I shook my head at this, and said the one thing I never could to her before, "No."

"Please Sam, I promise you that things will be different."

I was about to tell her that they wouldn't be, when I heard the patio door open and Melanie call out, "Sam? Are you still out here?" Right as she turned the corner to see us, Carly pulled me into her again, this time in a hug.

"Meet me at our spot at midnight. You will know that I mean it," she whispered in my ear. When she backed away, she said, "It was really good to see you again, Sam."

I wanted to make a crack that technically, she saw me every time she had a practice with Melanie, but I didn't. I just nodded and walked towards my sister. Together, the two of us made our way through the dancing crowd to the front door. Many people said goodbye to her on the way, and she nodded and handed out hugs to some of the cheerleaders before telling them she would see them at the next practice. When we made it out of the house, Melanie looked at me. "I am really sorry I wasn't there at the arena like I said I would be. I was talking to my crush for the first time ever, and I totally lost track of the time."

As I handed her the old helmet, and she took it without a complaint or eye roll, I let my irritation with her go completely. "Its fine. I was lucky I had some cool pom poms show me where to go. Its no big." With that, I started the engine to my bike and waited as Melanie got situated behind me. When she stopped moving and wrapped her arms around me, we took off, making our way home and getting back right at curfew.

Once we got inside, Melanie asked, "So what did you and Carly talk about?"

"You know, the past."

"Did she come out to you?"

This made me turn sharply to my twin, my mouth practically agape. "What?"

Melanie grinned at my expression. "When Carly and Freddie broke up last year, she had come out to him. Of course, she told me first, but I already knew since forever," she told me. "It has taken her forever to get the courage to even talk to you, but even if she tried to, you were never around when she came over. So... Whatever it was she said to you before we left, take it into consideration, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever," I said. I looked at the clock and saw that it was fifteen minutes after eleven, and I had only another fifteen to decide if I really wanted to go meet up with her.

***

I sighed out another long breath of air as I realized she wasn't coming. I should have known, and still I had that hope. "Damn Melanie," I muttered. I looked at my cellphone for the last time, seeing that she was now over forty five minutes late. Yeah, she wasn't coming. It was only getting colder, and I had to leave before some cop yelled at me for being in a park far past closing. Like I needed to give my mother any more reasons to think I was on drugs or something. I jammed my helmet on my head as I hurried to my bike. I saw the three cigarette butts that I left behind as climbed on, and then I started it up. Through the roar of the engine, I thought I heard my name, but I didn't look around, knowing that it was only my own heart's wishful thinking. Under the helmet, I forced my eyes to remain dry as I made my way home. I promised to myself that I would never speak to Carly Shay again.


End file.
